LondonScribe

Eastenders- Phil Mitchell and Ian Beale. Coming on 30 years, and taking in a multitude of other characters.

Coronation Street- Ken Barlow (played for almost 60 years by William Roache, by the way ) and Mike Baldwin were adversaries for nearly 30 years until Baldwin poetically died in Barlow’s arms in 2006.

Brent Boyd used to be a script editor (?) on the show. He used to be where Sara Bibel is now in the credits, but I can’t remember who brought him in. Quite hard to gauge his quality as he didn’t write scripts like he did for Monday’s show. 
 

Prior to joining Y&R first time around, I think he was a playwright?

Basically, I’m not a fount of knowledge

1 hour ago, NothinButAttitude said:

I have few soapy works I've written, but I've lost my urge to write as of late. I really need to force myself to write at least an hour each day. 

Exactly this. I’m making YouTube videos, and getting bogged down in other stuff, but I plan to knuckle down properly and add to my short story and increase my output every day.

1 hour ago, Melroser said:

Okay...i'm going to be shameless and plug my novel...

 

Chick Lit Cafe says, "Pressing Matters, by Bruce A. Fleming, is an exciting whodunit that will keep you guessing to the last pages."

 

Pressing Matters is the first in my series set in the fictional Milliken Mills, Maine. It follows the powerful Nolan family and their newspaper publishing empire. They battle the changing times and each other.

 

I started writing this around 2001 because I missed Melrose Place. I created it with MP and Dallas in mind. I often refer to the series as "my Dallas in a book." I initially self-published four volumes through Amazon's Createspace but then wasn't happy with the way things were going so I regrouped. I'm now relaunching through a different publishing venue in Maine. Pressing Matters is the first book. The second is slated for January. I have two others fully written, a fifth book half-done with an ending in mind, and a sixth book I have in my head as a "spinoff" to a different town for three of the characters. 

 

It's extremely soapy. I can't help it. I've grown up watching soaps and just love the genre. 

 

I hope maybe some of you will give it a try. 

 

 

https://maineauthorspublishing.com/pressing-matters/

 

This is a great achievement and I’ll try my darnedest to get a hold of a copy.

32 minutes ago, AlexElizabeth said:

I'm so glad they brought on ghost Paige to hate on Eve and defend Ben.

 

I feel like the show just realized that VK has boobs? The cleavage is getting a bit ridiculous I actually thought yesterday's Ben/Ciara scenes were pretty interesting. Ciara finally seemed fearful of Ben. I'm to the point where I'd actually be happy if Ben killed her, but I'm sure that won't happen.

 

Hope and Rafe... pass!

They certainly knew of (and emphasised) other parts of her. The only other person they do this with is Camilla Banus.

My writing has taken the form of short films and short stories. I’m toying around with formats and sentence construction in a short story. Once I’m finished with it, I plan to self-publish, so looking forward to that. I resisted writing anything set in lockdown but I think I’ve found a way to make it work. 
 

As for short scripts, I’ve had 3 made into short films (though the 1st was more me taking someone’s idea and putting my own spin on it. My professional background made me able to mould the story plausibly). 
 

I was in the very early stages of getting a crew together to make another one when the pandemic hit. 
 

I’ve been interested in writing radio drama or a radio serial, but know very little about it, so I look forward to researching that and trying to put something together
 

I deliberately didn’t talk about my own writing on here- because, who wants to know about little old me, eh? , plus I try my darnedest not to imagine myself writing these existing shows, (though the real network nonsense allows me to not want such a job, and thus, not apply my mind to it)... but this thread came along. 
 

On the back of this, I went and looked for any of the written stuff I did in my own soap and I managed to find the whole story outline from 2003-2007. Some of it was totally bonkers, but it does flow, story-wise.

Wrote and formulated a series back in 1994. It actually started as a teenage serial, focussing on 2 teenage private detectives, Troy and Tracy, who were twins, brother and sister. I was really really young so logic wasn’t really there. Their recurring mother was the voice of reason. 
 

It focussed on the siblings and the crimes they would solve, and their band of friends. If I had anything of it left, it would probably be appalling. But I used to tell my siblings these stories and it kept them entertained.
 

Within 3 months, I’d fallen in love with all of the characters and fictional seaside town they lived in, and expanded it into a full-on soap. I SORAS’d Troy and Tracy (and all their friends) into adults, moved them into the town’s CID and told what I perceived to be more mature stories, which included the mother of one of the friends being caught in an explosion after a siege. 
 

My first big ‘controversial’ story was having Troy and Tracy’s sweet, wise mother ripped off by an ageing con artist she had fallen for and subsequently dying in her sleep of a broken heart.

At that point, my siblings lost interest, even when I introduced characters based on them 

I carried it on until 1998, then did other teenage things. 
 

I then found myself drawn back to it in 2000, and revamped it, and carried it on, inventing producers and head writer (equivalents) to explain away any changes in storytelling style. Then, in 2007, I just stopped. 
 

13 years later and my mind occasionally wonders what the characters are up to.

I hadn’t really thought about it until this thread came up

Now, I mainly work on other writing projects and (short) film scripts.

Interesting. Y&R has quite an interesting relationship was its consultants. Daran Little was Mal Young’s Story Consultant, and left as soon as the changes happened last year. Story Consultants are less likely than the next role to lead to taking a main job.

Now, if she was brought in Executive Consultant, it would be more likely she was being prepared for when Griffith left, as has almost always been the case in the past.

5 hours ago, cassadine1991 said:

What do the credits say?

Back to normal.

JG has his own credit, next is

Beall,

Harmon Brown and

Endsley (sp?)

Then Bibel,

I don’t recall who was in the middle, then Endsley as SW.

I watched today’s episode last night (thank you internet) simply because I knew this was the first (in-canon) episode specifically filmed after lockdown...

and goodness me, it looked very awkward.

Only the real life couple (I think I read they are) were in close proximity on screen.

3 minutes ago, Dylan said:

Was this in any way related to the Covid period where most of the writing team were furloughed? Because I noticed they were the only 2 writers listed for that episode.

Though given the fact that Amanda Beall has moved ‘up the order’ of credits over the last few months, she may very well be Co-HW now.

The actor who plays Lee Shin may be photogenic, but darn, I’ve seen less wood on a log cabin

A little off-topic, and I know the rules of admiration/objectification vary (and I try to stay away from it all) but I dip in and out of the show, sometimes going a long time without watching, but I’ve noticed the following recently:

Not only is Victoria Konefal a vast improvement acting-wise over her predecessor, but also has an almost distractingly pronounced ‘seat’

Thankfully my queen pointed it out as well

On 7/3/2020 at 7:36 AM, victoria foxton said:

I wonder which recycled hack will replace him? 

 

I knew that Noel Maxam was a director at Days Our Lives. What I was surprised to find out was that former Y&R Executive Producer David Shaughnessy also directs regularly on the show.

If they are going to promote from within, I could think of worse than either of those two, particular the latter who was arguably the last really effective EP Y&R had. No idea if the depleted budget would hamstring them.
 

I know the former has previously served as Co-EP, but that coincided with the McPherson/Thomas misfire. 
 

Y&R could probably do with them in future but for now, that experience may be helpful to Days.

Going international once again.

•Phil and Grant Mitchell- Eastenders

•The Braxton Brothers/River Boys- Home and Away.

•The Slater Sisters (even though Kat was actually Zoe’s mother)- Eastenders 

•Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell- Eastenders

I’m sure I missed a whole lot but it’s late here in London

1 hour ago, Taoboi said:

I never been so glad to have Coronavirus mess up my work schedule. Again. I hate to say...but...I don't think there is any old school pre-2006 for sure that does not have the ability to draw a casual/regular viewer in.

 

This being a case in point.

I work, and write on the side (or write, with some work on the side, take your pick) so I’ve been operating from home since mid-March, even before lockdown was imposed in the U.K.
 

Is it bad that I’ve been more excited for these older episodes than absolutely anything aired in the last 15 years?

And is it bad that I’m actually dreading the return of 2020 episodes? I mean, while other people may have had their relationships with each other tested during this time, my relationship with Y&R is at a crossroads (again).

On 7/3/2020 at 9:31 PM, Taoboi said:

Wow. Isabella. HT Victoria. Hot Damon. Hot Paul.  Loving this episode.

 

The acting. The direction. The music.

 

I miss this Y&R.

Dena Higley immediately springs to mind.

At this stage, if American soap operas were a Scorpion and had the chance to do any story that fully served it’s black characters, actors as well as it’s audience (much less a BLM type story), I feel it would rather sting itself and sink

South Africa: Generations: The Legacy (2014-present). Originally called Generations, it debuted in 1994, and ran until a dispute led to the entire cast being fired in 2014. The present iteration was born from that.

Nigeria: Tinsel (2008- present)

Nigeria: Super Story (2001- present, though reportedly may not be around for too much longer). Funny story. And I’ve never disclosed this, but in somewhat of a ‘sliding doors’ moment, I could have worked with the show’s creator.

3 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

UK soaps operate on a different level...

As a Brit, I can tell you that U.K. soaps have entered the proverbial lift and have gone down a fair few levels but your point remains, and the industry still remains financially supported and largely respected.

11 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

  
Oh GOOD GOD know I now why I blocked that out for a reason!!! I had liked the Chase character too. I don’t why know Higley & Griffith even wrote that garbage. 

If I remember correctly, it was this story (and maybe Hope shooting Stefano in cold blood) that led to Griffith being removed from the Head Writing team.

52 minutes ago, lcrtorch said:

It's the only way I see how Brad Bell gets away with repeating the same storylines for all these years.

And he didn’t even create the show. I mean he’s been showrunner since 1993 (so that may practically amount to the same given the passage of time) but to be pedantic, Bill and Lee Philip Bell created Bold and the Beautiful. 

Nothing new said here, but watching these classic episodes (or should I say vintage as ‘classic’ possibly shouldn’t be applied as a broad stroke with some of the choices), serves as a depressing reminder what we probably have to look forward to when everything is up and running down the line.

I saw a suggestion that perhaps the series should be run in order from a point in 1998. Sign me up for that. Hardly any of it has dated badly in terms of language or subject matter, that I can recall, and we’d have the benefit of the older sets, Bell/Alden writing and superior production. It would be a riot if it build up a steady following, given that it would effectively serve as a first run for some of the few younger viewers the show has today.

8 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Katherine Chancellor and Murphy piloting a helicopter is exactly why MAB episodes should not be reaired LOL.

 

It says a lot that episodes from 10 years ago have aged worse than those of 30+ years ago.

3 minutes ago, StepBack said:

I loved this period of Y&R, and this is actually one of my favourite episodes. It has everything in it. Nikki and Sharon were campy fun. I’d even take back this time of Y&R compared to today.

 

Oh and Anita Hodges is on this one! That character such wasted potential and the actress was great.

I’ve said (seemingly ad infinitum) that for me, 2003 was the last really good year the show had before John Smith (who was made Executive Producer after the exit of David Shaughnessy, who in turn had followed Ed Scott) really started to put his stamp on the show, as EP and I think Head Writer) and things started to miss with more frequency rather than land with more consistency.

*The above subject to factual verification.